Days of rain have resulted in tens of millions of gallons of raw sewage and stormwater runoff pouring into the Chicago River system through the sewers and overland as well as releases into the lake at Wilmette and downtown Chicago.

Friends and our Water Quality Task Force partners at Environmental Law & Policy Center, Openlands, and Sierra Club, Illinois Chapter are seeking photographs of algal blooms on the river to support our efforts to reduce nutrient pollution.

We're especially looking for photos from the 2018 and 2019 paddling seasons, but any photos will help.

Friends of the Chicago River is thrilled to announce that we have been selected for the 2019 John Muir Conservation Habitat Restoration Award for Nonprofits from the John Muir Association.

Friends' success in transforming the health of the Chicago River system was front and center in the news in the last few weeks.

Public relations professional Tim Touhy joins Friends of the Chicago River as director of communications.

The Chicago River has been transformed from the days that is was considered part of our infrastructure and served as a sewage and shipping canal.

Friends of the Chicago River is thrilled to present Kristen Turgeon, a science teacher at Von Steuben Metropolitan Science Center on Chicago’s north side, with Friends’ Educator of the Year award for 2019.

In light of the COVID-19 outbreak and stay at home orders by the state, Friends of the Chicago River has canceled or postponed some of our annual events and programs.

While so many of us are hunkered down waiting out the corona virus, we have an extraordinary opportunity to do something to help the world together: turn out the lights.

There are many river reaches within the city limits including the Chicago River, the North Shore Channel, the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, and the Calumet, Little Calumet and Rivers which provide critical habitat for birds of all kinds.